A Sword Soaked In Blood
by Hunnypooh
Summary: Raven has a more dangerous and deadlier secret than of her heritage on her father's side. She had been also been lying about what her mother was as well. Watch how a single event triggers a whole lot of mess that could end with the TTs losing their lives.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I know I know

AN: I know I know. "Another story!" What the hell am I thinking, right? Well Unexpected Youth doesn't feel right to continue for now since it's not excelling like the others like the others. I might continue it again one day but for now I've had this idea swimming in my head but was afraid to put it on since I thought I already had enough. But then I saw people with a ten stories being worked on so I was like "I can do that too." so here I am. Summoner's Sadness is still being continued so don't worry about that one. I'm kind of surprised no one's made story like this. Oh well that just means that this will be the first story that I had thought of myself without any clue from anyone.

This is placed about a year after the end of the world fiasco with Trigon, Raven's father, in the animated cartoon series. I hope you like it. And I surely hope this comes out as well as I want it to. Tell me how you think of it, and if the result's good then I'll continue.

Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful world of the Teen Titans or the awesome anime show. If I did this story would so happen.

"Talk"

'Thought'

**A Sword Soaked in Blood**

**Chapter 1**

It had been a normal night like always. The Teen Titans were spread throughout the Tower doing their own thing as usual. Cyborg was working on his 'baby' in the garage, Beast Boy was playing _Super Mega Monkey Turbo Explosion 4 _in the living room, Starfire was eating mustard cover ice cream in the kitchen, Robin was training in the weight room, and Raven was sitting in the privacy of her room, reading a book. Everything seemed somewhat peaceful until…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The 'Trouble' siren went off, red lights flashing throughout every room in the tower, alerting its inhabitants to whatever 'trouble' had befallen Jump City. The team immediately stopped what they were doing and gathered into the living room. Robin looked at the computer to see where the disturbance was.

"The power plant," he announced to the team.

"Who would be attacking that now?" Cyborg said.

"I don't know. From what the report says the threat is… unidentifiable."

"Who cares? Let's just take care of it," Raven said as she crossed her arms.

"Raven's right. Let's go," Robin agreed and they headed over to the Jump City power plant.

As they entered the power plant they realized that, for a place that had given a disturbance call, it was unusually quiet. They searched every sector until they ended up in a room where there had definitely been chaos. Barrels looked they were either thrown to the surrounding walls or crushed like soda cans. There were dents in the sliding doors, meaning that it was opened with extreme force, and scratch marks littered the wall and floors.

The Titans searched the room for anything else and found something that shook them all to the core:

It was a corpse; a male one, and one of the guards if the uniform was any indication. There was blood leaking out of it's neck which looked like it had a savage bite mark on it. The corpse looked to be sucked dry of its lifeblood. Its eyes were open in pain as it lifelessly looked at the ceiling above him.

Starfire shrieked in terror of the scene and buried her face in Robin shoulder to hide from the sight. Beast Boy looked a little greener than usual as he moved away from it, Cyborg following close behind him. Robin widened in fright while Raven seemed to have done nothing but if you looked carefully you would see that her jaw had clenched tightly.

"Who… or what could have done this? The only thing I can think of doing something like this would be a vampire but those don't exist… right Raven?" Robin turned slowly towards Raven for her opinion, since everyone was occupied at the moment.

Raven made no hint that she heard him but after a minute she answered him, "Vampires do exist Robin. But I can tell this wasn't a vampire's work. It's too messy and too sloppy. And I'm pretty sure that it would have stashed the body after it was done. Also, I can't sense one anywhere near here. No… this was something bigger if the bite marks are any clue. But what I'm not sure." She bent down closer towards the body for anything she might've missed while Robin led Starfire out of the sector.

Raven was alone with the body while the others waited outside. She couldn't remember ever seeing anything like this, but for some reason the way this man was killed seemed awfully familiar. Like from a distant dream that seemed to get foggier the more she tried to remember it. She tired even harder to remember what this memory; what creature did this that she did not even realize that something was sneaking up on her until it was right behind her breathing its hot breathing it hot breath on the back of her neck and snarling menacingly.

Raven's eyes widened as she turned around swiftly and what she saw made her gasp in surprise.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The other Titans had taken to just sitting outside while Raven handled the body, until they heard a loud roar followed by a thump and yell of pain resonating from the room.

"Raven!" Robin shouted, and they all hurried into the room to see Raven thrown to the opposite side of the wall, where the body was, and banged into a steel wall. Her teammates reached her as she slid to the floor.

"Raven! Are you okay?" Beast Boy asked.

Surprisingly Raven had not blacked out from the collision and simply shook her head to clear it before climbing to her feet with Cyborg's help.

"Yeah. I think so," she said as she rubbed the back of her head, where she already felt swelling. She had a bloodied cut on her cheek and her left leg, but overall she was fine.

They moved their attention to the beast that had hit her and was now rising towards them, set to attack again.

The monster was the size of a very large lion, if it could stand on its hind legs. Its arms were so long they reached the floor, and its jowls, which looked like a giant mouth a bat's, held twp jagged rows of razor sharp teeth. Its dark skin looked like it had been stretched over its body in some places and placed in excess in others. Its eyes were a bright red as they focused predatorily at the five teens. It drooled as it long tongue rolled out of its mouth and it started to licks its lips in hunger.

"What is that thing?" Cyborg asked with a quivering voice as it started to slowly advance towards them.

"I have no idea… do you think it's an alien or a mutant of some kind?" Robin inquired, as it grew closer.

"I am not sure friend Robin. I have never come across nor heard of any alien like this before,"

Starfire said.

"Nor have I," Raven said as she poised herself, ready to protect the team when needed.

Her slow movements seemed to have made the fearsome creature think she was about to try to escape, and it sped into a run, its nails scraping the floor as its long fingers drag across the floor.

That drove Robin to act; he took once of his explosives out of his belt and threw it at the beast. It hit right in the chest and exploded.

"Nice shot Robin," Cyborg cheered throwing a thumb up, obviously thinking the thing was down for the count.

Robin scoffed at his praise and said, "Let's not celebrate just yet. We have to get this thing to somewhere before it gets back u-."

He was interrupted by an angry roar.

The smoke cleared and the creature was lying on its stomach surrounded in its blood. But then it started to rise from its position until it was standing again. There was a gaping hole in its abdomen, but then its skin started to bubble like it was boiling. Then it stretched over the wound until it looked like Robin had never created it the opening.

"What is that thing?" Beast Boy screamed as the thing let out a ferocious roar.

"I'm not sure." Robin yelled as he kept throwing projectiles at it. But each just seemed to slow it down for only a few moments and succeeded in getting it angrier and angrier. Starfire began to join him in his effort with her starbolts, followed closely by Cyborg and his sonic boom. But it still wouldn't stop.

After a minute they realized that it wasn't working therefore Beast Boy exclaimed, "RUN!" which they did. Well, all of them except Raven. She seemed to be staring at the beast as if she were in trance. She simply stood and watched, as it grew closer to her. The creature seemed to ignore them as they ran in favor of going after the half-demon.

Robin stopped and yelled at the others to go ahead as he ran back to Raven. He stood in front of her and even then she didn't acknowledge his presence.

He planted his hand on her shoulders and shook her, but still she stood frozen. "Raven? Raven! Come on! Snap out of it. This is no time to have a break down!" He looked over his shoulder as the beast crept eerily slow towards them, as if to make their doom more frightening than it already was.

Raven seemed to have slipped slightly out of her state as she focused on Robin face. The irises of her eyes turned a glowing blood red before turning back to their normal lavender hue.

"Robin?" She whispered. She groaned and grabbed her head, "What happened?"

"You tell me," Robin said as he studied her face. She looked confused as her eyes slowly considered the space around her before landing on his masked ones. Robin looked behind him and saw that the monster had stopped and seemed to be studying them as it sniffed the air.

"Tell me later. Right now we need get out of here," he took hold of her arm and started to drag her towards the door where the others were, all the while never taking his eyes off the beast. The beast's read eyes simply followed them as they moved closer to the door, but to Robin it seemed like it was looking at Raven.

They swiftly ran from the room, and joined the team, who were a good thirty feet away from the door.

When they stopped Robin looked at Raven, who simply leaned against the wall in what looked to be shock.

"Raven, what happened back there?" Robin was seriously worried. It wasn't like the dark sorceress to just freeze up like that. What could have caused it?

"You didn't hear it?" she murmured. Her eyes held something strange in them as she leveled her gaze with Robin's. The others simply stared at Raven confusedly at her query.

"Hear what?" Cyborg asked.

"The song…" she said as she slid down the wall onto her bottom and stayed there.

Robin was critically concerned now. What was going on? He knelt before her and asked, "What song? Raven, what's going on?"

"Perhaps we should continue this talk later, yes?" Starfire said with a scared quivering voice as she pointed with a shaking finger down the hallway. The rest looked to see the beast ripping away the rest of the door away ferociously with its long claws. It tore it off and with a vicious roar it was thrown at them. They moved out the way of it and it sailed down the hallway.

"RUN!!" Beast Boy yelled before he broke for it towards the exit but he stopped so suddenly he almost fell as he saw what was down the other end:

…Another creature like the last.

It had caught the door and with its own brute strength it bended it before throwing it aside. It let forth a roar similar to the first and ran towards them at a quick pace. Robin looked around for an escape route and saw a side door.

"This way!" he yelled, and he ran for it, the others following close behind. All except for Raven, who still sat, slumped against the wall in a daze. Cyborg noticed this and he went back to pick her up bridal style and carry her into the room.

After a glance they saw the room was similar the other one. There were barrels of who-knows-what. A hoist was parked against a wall, and the ceiling held a huge skylight, where they could see a full moon shining that gave them enough light to see.

Robin shut the steel door as soon as everyone inside. "Starfire, seal the door!" And she used her powers to seal the door closed.

Robin stared at the door as it cooled, "That should hold them off for a moment." He looked at his team as he thought of a way to get out of this. He noticed Cyborg holding a catatonic Raven.

"What's wrong with her?" Robin inquired as he studied her. Her breathing was shallow as she simply looked up at the skylight with half-lidded eyes.

"I'm not sure. I can't find anything on my sensors. I'd have to take her back to the hospital wing to find out more… but it looks like we're not gonna get there anytime soon," Cyborg said as he bit his lip in concern. There was definitely something wrong and it had something to with those monsters. But what he was still trying to figure out.

"What are we gonna do?" Beast Boy asked with a shuddering voice. He was shaking visibly from fear of the situation and worry for Raven and he began to bite his nails.

Suddenly there was banging on the door began and it grew louder and louder. Roars and screeches accompanied it and as bumps began to form in the steel plating, Starfire let out a cry of panic.

Robin looked up at the skylight. "That's our way out of this," He said, "We can break the window and fly ourselves out of here." He took a disk out of his belt, but before he could throw it, the door crashed (I have no idea what word to use. Can you help me?) off and crashed right into his back, knocking him to the ground.

"Robin!" Starfire screamed as she rushed to his aid. She lifted it off him with ease and helped him up. That's when the beasts burst through the door. Robin and Starfire were only five feet away from them, but they ignored the two teens for Cyborg, who wasn't anywhere near them. They sped towards him with inhuman speed and rammed him into the wall. He lost his grip on Raven in the collision, and she fell lifelessly to the floor. Cyborg groaned and opened his eyes to see that they weren't attacking him anymore but were advancing on Raven. Raven was not moving but lay on her side in a heap.

"Raven!" Robin yelled in panic as he broken into a run towards her, but, before he could reach her, there was a break of glass and a man landed right in front of him.

He didn't fall to the floor, it was like he simply floated (ya know… how Inuyasha jumps and then slowly lands on the floor sometimes like he's floating) and landed lightly on his feet. This man looked to be any normal man; he possessed black hair that reached his shoulders and was tied to the nape of his neck with a blue ribbon, a few wisps of hair covering his pale face. He wore dark colored pants, a jacket with a white shirt underneath it, and pair of black shoes. He looked like just any normal man, but Robin knew better. He carried a large case on his back, a sheathed sword at his hip, and one of his hands was covered fully with bandages and irregularly shaped compared to the other one.¹

"Wh-who are you?" Robin hesitated.

The man remained quiet as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a throwing knife. In a smooth, swift motion the knife flew out of his hand as it dove right into a beast's eyes. Blood spouted out of it as the beast yelled in pain and fury. It wrenched it out and threw it angrily in a random direction, which happened to be Beast Boy's direction. He let forth a frightened yelp and dove for the ground. It sailed over his body and drove itself into the wall.

The beast screeched at the man, but the man showed no sign of fear or, for that manner, no emotion at all. It charged at him but the man simply jumped onto to its back in an attempt to get higher. In midair he freed the case from his back. He landed between Raven and the other beast, and instead of opening the case to use whatever weapon was inside of it, he used the large case itself and rammed it into the beast's side, knocking it a good distance from the two. The man turned his attention to Raven, who was still laid unmoving on the ground. He took a few steps towards her when the beasts began to advance on them again, but before they could touch the two, a blue-tinged barrier rose around them and the beasts bashed their heads into it painfully.

This surprised the team, but the man didn't seem shocked at all. Then, out of the shadows, a young boy who looked about eleven or twelve arose, with a blue glowing hand posed at the two inside the shield. Obviously, he was the one who created it. The boy looked as normal if not more than the other stranger, with brown hair and brown eyes. His skin wasn't as pale though, and he looked far more emotional and innocent. He wore the same suit as the man though.²

Seeing that he and Raven were safe for now against the monsters, the man continued to walk calmly towards the small girl. He stopped before her and simple stared at her, before he went for his bandaged hand and went through the process of unwrapping it.

What was underneath made Robin gasp in horror; Cyborg's and Beast Boy's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets while Starfire let forth a startled scream as she covered her mouth in terror.

It wasn't a normal human hand. In fact it didn't look human at all. It looked similar to one of the monsters' hands, except it was smaller and the claws were shorter yet more deadly looking.

With his human hand he reached for Raven and turned her over on her back. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and brought forth another throwing knife, same as the first.

Robin's eyes widened at what he thought of what the man was planning to do with that. Cyborg's thought process seemed to be along those lines as well, as they both started to run towards them.

"HEY! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran full force, but both of the teenaged boys ran into the barrier. They beat against it futilely until they realized it was no use. Robin growled and turned his attention to the boy who had created the barrier. "You! Kid, let it down right now or else…" He narrowed his eyes dangerously to show his point.

The boy looked at him an apologetic look as he said, "Sorry. I can't do that… at least… not right now. We need Rachel to finish this."

"Let it down now!" Robin screamed furiously. He didn't bother thinking about who "Rachel" was.

"Sorry, but I can't." the boy replied.

Robin snarled in frustration before throwing a birdarang at the boy. The preteen raised his other hand and it also glowed blue before forming a barrier around his person, effectively blocking the projectile from harming him.

"Don't worry. We just need to Wake³ her up. We would never hurt her. It'll be over soon enough. Just try to avoid the chiropterans until we're done."

Robin didn't have enough time to contemplate what a "chiropteran" was before one of the beasts swung a huge clawed hand at his head. He ducked down just in time and rolled out of the way. His eyes darted back towards where Raven and the man were to see the man raising the knife above his head before bring it down into his inhuman hand. He carved an X into it and gripped it, instantly drawing blood. Robin was so focused on what the man was doing that he didn't even notice the monsters trying to rip into the barrier, nor his friends that also watched the proceedings with anxiousness for their dark friend and teammate.

The man murmured something, but it was so soft that all Robin could make out was "Rachel" and "wake". Neither word was making any sense to him. The adult stranger brought the wounded hand to his mouth and seemed to be drinking his own blood. Robin watch in disgusted interest as the man drank for a good ten seconds. He lowered his hand and knelt before Raven who was still unmoving. And then he did something that made Robin's, Cyborg, and Beast Boy's eyebrows rose past their hairlines and Starfire yelped and covered her mouth in surprise.

He kissed her. From where Robin stood it looked like a dark version of Snow White, when the Prince kissed her to free her from her cursed slumber. And he soon realized that it was more similar than he thought. He focused more and saw that the guy's mouth was moving, as if he was spitting out something into Raven mouth. A drop of blood escaped their connected lips and Robin's eyes widened in horrified revulsion when he realized what was happening…

He was making Raven drink his blood!

Robin took a swift glance at Cyborg and saw that he was frozen to the spot in shock. There was a flicker of disgust in his human eye that showed that he knew too what the man was doing.

This went on for twenty seconds and finally the man rose, wiping the blood left from his mouth with a jacket sleeve and standing. He stared at Raven prone form as if waiting for something to happen. There was silence and then…

Raven's eyes snapped open. Her limbs began to twitch as if she was using them for the first time. She turned slowly on her side and used her arms to raise her half-way up. When she seemed to not be able to stand, she threw out a hand that, surprisingly, the man hurriedly took to help her easily to her feet. Raven rose calmly as if it was natural for her. She leisurely assessed the situation, looking over the entire room to the man, the boy, the four teenaged superheroes, and the two chiropterans. Her eyes landed on Robin and he was extremely shocked to see that instead of the lavender eyes he was so accustomed to see, her irises were the same glowing blood red that he had seen earlier. They seemed to burrow into his soul and it sent a shiver down his spine.

She looked away to focus on the two chiropterans who were still trying to tear away at the barrier. "Sword," she said clearly for all to hear, as she held out her left hand expectantly. The man reacted immediately to this, and pulled the forgotten sword at his side out of its sheath.

It was beautiful weapon, and if the situation had been different, Robin would have taken the time to appreciate its elegance. It looked like any normal sword, except near the hilt it had a bright ruby red stone. And where the blunt side should be, near the hilt, was another sharp edge. There were wedges in the sword that ran down it. The man put the hilt into Raven's hand and she instantly wrapped her fingers around it. She gave a practice swing, cutting the air in front of her. "Thank you for Waking me, Haji," she said coolly. The man nodded his head, allowing Robin to now know what this mystery man's name was. But how Raven knew him was still unknown.

She smirked mockingly as the monsters seemed to freeze under her glowing stare. "Let it down, Riku," she said calmly and boy, now known as "Riku", let both his hands fall, dropping both the shields he had erected instantly. The monsters still didn't move. They simply huffed and puffed and ran their fingers along the steel floor, as if biding their time to attack. Raven snickered darkly, shocking her teammates (She barely ever did any kind of laughing around them!), as she said, "You poor… poor creatures… you two must be in so much pain." Her smirk grew larger, "Do not worry. I will end you miserable existence right here and now." She reached up for the pin of her cloak and unclipped it before throwing the cloak haphazardly to the floor behind her. This shocked Robin, for he had never seen her willingly remove her cloak before in battle. This behavior was so unlike her and it most likely had something to do with what "Haji" had done to her.

In nothing but her leotard and boots, she advanced towards them in a walk. She poised her hand right hand over the sharp edge of the back of her sword and she pressed down, drawing blood. The blood moved down the edge and moved through the wedges of the sword like water through an aqueduct, striping it with crimson liquid. She poised the sword in front of her, and then ran full force towards the monstrous couple. Her face grew serious as she closed in on them.

The chiropterans decided to move then, and one ran at her as well. It slammed its claws down on her, but she just held up her sword to block the blow. The other one went to attack from behind, but Haji moved to push it away. With inhuman strength, Raven over powered her monster and pushed it off balance; then, in a quick pace, stabbed the already bloodied sword into its chest. The monster screamed in rage, and moved to remove the weapon. Bbut it suddenly froze, and then it let loose an unearthly screech of indescribable pain. Raven removed her sword to reveal a bleeding wound that wouldn't close and heal. The skin around it began to harden and crack. The beast kept screaming as this phenomenon spread across its body, as if it was poisoned. Seconds later, the beast had taken on the appearance of a statue; unmoving and stiff in the position that it had been stabbed in. Raven smirked as she pushed lightly on the statue, making it fall over. It broke into thousands of pieces, revealing the inside as nothing but shards of ruby stones. The beast had been crystallized from the inside out.

Raven turned towards the other beast that was being held at bay by Haji. Haji moved out of the way, and the beast instantly ran for the dark witch, but Raven showed a stoic face as it came. The beast was about ram into her when she jumped and flipped over it with remarkable ease. The beast ran for her again, but Raven was ready for it as she poised her sword in front of her, and swung it deep into its side as stopping it in its tracks. The beast still wanted to fight before it died, as it began to struggle. Raven's eyes narrowed, and she grinded her teeth as she drove her weapon deeper and deeper into the beast's abdomen. With a finishing cry she cleaved the beast's upper body clean off and it landed several feet away. Blood flowed like a fountain out of the bottom half, splashing Raven's face before it fell over. The upper half squirmed about before it froze. It's turned into a statue, and its red blood crystallized into that red stone.

Raven slowly rose into a standing position, recognizing that her job must've been finished, for there weren't any chiropterans left. Her eyes stopped glowing, and instead showed a duller color of dark red.

She walked over to Haji and whispered something in his ear, to which he nodded. Then, suddenly, she fell over in a dead faint. Haji caught her easily before she hit the ground and lowered her slowly to the ground. Then he walked away towards Riku.

Robin felt that this was his cue to get Raven. He hesitantly ran toward her, not taking his eyes off Haji and Riku as they conversed, just in case they tried something, the others following him. He knelt beside her and held her upper body, shaking her gently. "Raven? Raven… are you okay?" he received no answer as the mysterious teenager slept on, obliviously to what was around her.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the strangers were about to depart. He gave Raven over to Cyborg to analyze her for any problems as he stood up.

"You!" he yelled, making the two stop to look at him. Haji simply looked at him with stoic expression, while Riku looked at him nervously. "What did you to Raven?!" he said, frustrated. He had no idea what was going on and that made him feel helpless. He hated feeling helpless.

Riku bit his lip as he looked at Haji for guidance on what to say to the concerned teen. Haji studied Robin before answering cryptically, "We Woke her up." And with that he jumped out of the skylight-hole that was created earlier… which was over thirty feet high. He landed on the top effortlessly and ran out of sight. Robin got over his amazement at the feat to look back at Riku, who gave him a sad smile as he looked over Robin's shoulder towards the sleeping Raven. He looked back into Robin's masked face and said quietly, "Take care of her…" He quickly followed Haji before Robin could ask more.

Robin let loose a frustrated sigh, looking at the rest of the group; intently thinking of what else Raven could be hiding from them.

**End of Chapter**

Guess who this is.

Guess who this one is too. And I know he doesn't use magic and he should be dead but I made it so. So ha!

For those who watch the Blood, you would understand why I have that capitalized "woke". It holds a deeper importance and symbolism than just being woken up.

AN: Well I hope you enjoyed that. There was gonna be more but I decided to cut it off here. If you don't know the show Blood+ but would like to check it out you can see it on youtube or something or get the DVDs. It's a really good series. For those who have seen it and understand the plot of it all: Who thought Raven was going to turn in a chiropteran or was going to take the place of Saya by the middle of the story? I'm interested in seeing how people will take this one. Well that's it. Cya. The beta for this story is the lovely and talented yllom21. Check out her stories and profile.

Also one more thing: I have a poll on my profile. It would mean a lot if you voted. The question is: Which one of my stories do you like the most?

Hunnypooh


	2. Chapter 2

**Important AN**: I know I should be working on Summoner's Sadness, but the beginning of this story came in my head before I could think of something for the other. So I'm gonna write another chapter for ASSIB and then work on SS. So here we go. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about something that confuses you, ask me and if it's not going to give the story away I will answer so you understand. This took me a while to get to. Sorry had a lot going at the same for a long amount to time. Not really gonna explain myself. Plus I thought I had put this up already. Whoops.

Okay no disrespect to the person who had tried to help me with the logistics of the upcoming medical, but to put it frankly, I'm not doctor nor do I aspire and this is first and foremost a fanfic, as in fan**fiction**, as in not **real**, therefore it doesn't have to be **true or real** at this point. Calm down. If I get any flames on it, I will curse you out harshly. That means anyone. So back off.

Also you will notice that I changed the spelling of Rachel', who is technically Raven, name has been changed and here's my reasoning. According to , Joel who is the root of the Blood+ mishap is, his name's origin in Hebrew. Now when I first wrote this I spelt it as Rachelle because it looked more elegant, but later found out it was French. So later I changed the spelling to the Hebrew spelling Rachel, thinking that Joel would probably name her something to match his name. Also the Saya doesn't mean anything its made up, so I really didn't see a need to use it.

Can anyone help me here? I'm trying to figure out where the location of Joel's study has been but am getting nothing no matter where I look. I think it's in France, but I still not sure.

Thanks for listening.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of the worlds that occur in this story.

"Talk"

'Thought'

A Sword Soaked In Blood

**Chapter 2**

Rachel opened her eyes for the second time in over fifty years, the first having only been about seven hours ago. The first thing she saw after so many years of darkness was a contrasting burst of white. She closed her eyes from the brightness and groaned at the splotches of color swirling under her eyelids. She gave herself a few minutes to adjust to the light shining above her before she opened her eyes again and took a slow but efficient look at her surroundings. She realized that she was in hospital of some kind; maybe a hospital wing to a building.

"Titans Tower…" she murmured to herself. She didn't know why she said it. It just popped up into her head. She was in the hospital wing of the Titans Tower. This memory was probably Raven's doing.

Rachel twitched a finger and then a toe, before raising a hand gradually to her face. She watched as her fingers flexed to get some feeling into them. They curled slowly into a fist before stretching outwards. She lowered the hand and sighed as she began the task of standing. She steadily swung her legs over the hospital bed she had been laid upon and landed shakily onto her feet. She studied the sickening white room one more time before she looked down at herself. She was bare foot. It was only then that she noticed how cold the white tiled floor was. She found a pair of dark blue boots that she could only assume were hers on the other side of the bed. She slipped them on and then went back to study the changes of her body. She wore nothing but a black leotard that covered all of her upper body but none of her legs. She saw bloodied bandages wrapped tightly around her left calf all the way up to the middle of her thigh. She unwrapped them to see that the skin underneath was clean and smooth with no wound in sight. This was no surprise to Rachel. She had always known of her incredible healing abilities. It came with what she was.

'My cloak…' she thought aimlessly, wondering just what "her cloak" looked like. Her eyes scanned the room once again until they landed on a dark blue cloak that was hung over a chair. She picked it up and hurriedly draped herself of it, noticing the red-gem belt that was under it and donned that as well.

That's when she heard footsteps moving steadily to where she was. From the number of footfalls she could hear, there was more than one person coming. It was maybe three or four people. Rachel began to feel a dose of panic rise up her spine as she thought of a way to escape before the door opened.

'My room…' Another random thought, courtesy of Raven. Already the memory of where "her" room was filled Rachelle's mind and she activated her powers over darkness to phase through the floor. She didn't stop her travel until she reached the front door of her room. It was a plain gray door that blended well with the gray walls around it. The only thing on it was the name "Raven" in bland black letters labeling the room as "hers". She disregarded this sign for obvious reasons and went inside. The door slid closed automatically as she entered, enveloping her in total darkness. Rachelle frowned at this. She had been in darkness for half a century… she certainly didn't want to be in anymore if she could help it. She quickly found the light switch and the lights went on, allowing her to see.

The room was the absolute definition of darkness. The walls were painted a dark purple, almost to the point of being black. A dark purple bed with black sheets and purple pillows sat against the wall to her left. The right wall had a black bookcase filled with books as well as a small dark blue vanity and a dark purple dresser. A large window was opposite of where she stood, covered by a black curtain. Light was filtering out of the sides so Raven deduced that it was daytime or at least morning. A door that was painted dark lavender was a few feet from her bed. She opened to find that it was a small walk-in closet. Another door was next to her bookcase. She opened this one to see that at was a private bathroom. It had a tub, shower, toilet, and a mirrored medicine cabinet inside. She walked over to the mirror to see what has become of her person after her longer-than-usual Sleep.

She hadn't changed much: same lithe body, deathly pale skin, and same softly featured face. She recognized her features. They never did change when she Slept or when she Woke up. Her hair had grown but only a few inches so that it reached her shoulders. It's usually much longer when Rachel awoke, to her thighs actually, but she guessed that Raven was the one to cut it to shoulder length. It was still too long.

'I'll deal with that later…' She thought as she ran her fingers through the same lavender hair. She focused on her face. There was band-aid on her cheek. She tore that off and saw no cut or blemish to show why it had been there. Her face was as it always had been. All the way down to her brick red eyes. She strangely felt a sense of déjà vu as she saw a girl who looked exactly like her. She stared back at Rachel with cold lavender eyes; eyes that matched perfectly with the blank expression on her face.

Rachelle's own red eyes widened in shock and she gasped in surprise. The girl disappeared and Rachelle once again saw her own face staring back at her with a shaken expression. Rachelle forced her breathing to calm and her heart to slow before she focused back at the mirror.

"Raven…" she said to herself as she ran a hand down the reflective surface.

She exited the bathroom and decided to search the room for something… anything that would help her know where exactly she was and who "she" was. What had Raven been like before Rachelle had taken over again? Who were her friends and what did she do? She could feel Raven's memories merging with her own, but it wasn't coming fast enough. She needed the knowledge _now_ if she was to interact and not raise suspicion with Raven's acquaintances. She searched through the books but found nothing worth noting for right now. Most of them were books on the history of Earth and Azarath and magic books about ritual and dark magic. No hidden pictures or letters between the pages, either.

Only when she had looked under the bed did she find a treasure trove of information after about an hour of fruitless looking. It had been hidden inside a black box so it blended well with the shadows. But having great eyes when it came to dark places, Rachelle found it easily.

She opened it to find pictures and a diary. The pictures were bound tightly together into a large bundle. The diary was a simple small black book that had Raven's name inscribed in purple letters. She put the diary aside to look at the pictures, studying every detail. There was Raven. She looked exactly the same as Rachelle; the only difference was Raven had eyes as lavender as the flower itself and Rachelle's were burgundy color reminiscent of dried blood. Rachelle hardly saw a smile on Raven's face in any of the pictures. A true smile anyway; mostly just the smallest of smirks. Her eyes sometimes had a spark of amusement or mirth in them, though.

There were lots of pictures of people who seemed to be Raven's friends by the way they surrounded her with warming smiles on their faces and friendly gestures.

A girl with long red hair, orange skin, and big, wide, emerald green eyes with a midriff showing purple dress and a unusual height looked at the camera with a bright smile that seemed to light up the pictures. She looked to have a bubbly and sunny personality; an innocence that most would kill to have. She was almost like a polar opposite of Raven who usually stood next to her, dwarfed by the female alien's height. In yet by the looks of it, they were friends. 'Starfire…' The name entered her mind automatically.

The next one was an African-American teenaged boy who looked to be part human and part robot. He didn't wear any clothing or for that matter didn't need to. As Rachelle studied his features in the pictures that showed him, she started feeling a strange sense of warmth and protection. Almost like this was her big brother she was looking at, even though she knew for a fact that she didn't have a big brother. She only had an adoptive little brother and blood sister… a twin sister. Sapphire blues eyes¹ flashed in her mind before she shook her head to rid herself of the vision. She didn't need to think about _her_ right now. No… this was definitely not the time. Rachelle focused back on the teenaged boy and his name popped up in seconds. 'Cyborg…'

She went to the next person to see a green skinned boy with wide forest green eyes and hair of the same color. She didn't see very much of him in the huge pile of photos but she was pretty sure that the green birds, rhinoceroses, kitties, dogs, T-rexes, pterodactyls, and snakes that she _had_ seen were all the boy and that he was a shape-shifter. The name "Beast Boy" ('Huh… figures') clicked off in her head so she moved onto the last person she needed to study.

She saw a dark-haired boy wearing a costume that reminded her of traffic light with the overwhelming combination of red, green, and yellow. On his face was a plain black mask that covered only his eyes but still did its job to hide him from the world. There were a lot of personal photos where it was just he and Raven. There was one where he had his arm around her small shoulders and was holding her close in a friendly fashion. Rachelle not only felt wave of warmth, but she also felt a deep adoration for this boy. He must have been like a best friend to Raven. 'Robin…' For some reason, Rachelle smiled at the name and then began to gather the photos. She rebound them and placed them back in the box with care before she moved onto the diary.

The was a red gem in the binding in place of a lock to keep it from being opened, but when Rachelle looked at it, the knowledge of how to open it rushed into the front of her mind and she knew what she needed to do. She put a finger to it and then put a bit of black magic into it. The gem turned onyx black before opening with a click and Rachelle opened it. She noticed that Raven's handwriting was surprisingly messy and loopy but still readable. She turned to the first page and began to read.

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The other Titans entered the hospital wing only to see an empty room and a black portal that was quickly closing as soon as they came inside. Raven's cape, belt, and shoes were gone as well as herself. The obvious had just occurred: Raven escaped to her room.

"Should we go get her?" Beast Boy asked as he turned towards Robin. His eyes were shifting restlessly at the exit, avid to find Raven and find out what had happened last night.

Cyborg didn't give Robin a chance to answer, "Naw…" He walked into a back room of the hospital wing. "Besides," he yelled from the other room so the others could hear, "I have something to show you anyway. Something I found very interesting about Raven."

Hearing that, the other Titans settled into a chair or bed to hear the news, but Robin remained standing. Cyborg returned with a file folder under his arm that had Raven's name on it.

"Ever since the end-of–the-world fiasco last year, whenever Raven is sent to the hospital wing due to a wound or just needed rest, which is really rare, I sometimes take a brain scan to make sure everything is alright up there."

Robin was only a little surprised at this statement. Cyborg was the doctor of the group so he was allowed to do something like this if he thought he needed to. He hardly ever took brain scans, but Robin could understand why Cyborg did it for Raven. Her mind could be very fragile at times.

Cyborg began to speak again, "Every time before now I always found this in my scans." He took three pictures out of the folder and pinned them against a bright light board. He turned on the light so they could be seen.

The scans showed shapes of normal brains but their colors in different splotches of color. There was no uniformity of the colors and each scan was different from the last. But there was one thing that each one had that Robin had a feeling wasn't normal or really supposed to be there. In the very back of the brain was a big neon purple cloud. It was in the same place in each picture and stayed the same size, never increasing or decreasing in girth.

Robin eyebrows furrowed in fascination as asked, "What is that cloud thing?"

"I was waiting for you to ask that," Cyborg said, "In my small experience and from what I read from books after I saw this thing. It could be a suppressed memory."

"Suppressed memory?" Starfire repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, and by the size of it, I'm guessing it's a pretty big one."

"Wait," Beast Boy said, "what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that some of Raven's memories had been locked up somewhere in her mind so that not even she can see them or remember them. Most are caused by a trauma but someone else can force them to happen. Most people have small ones, though. Whatever was locked in there had to be big."

"Was?" Robin asked, truly interested yet worried about where this was going.

"Oh yeah," Cyborg chuckled at his forgetfulness. "Well, last night while she was still asleep from whatever happened yesterday, I decided to make another scan to make sure everything was okay… and I found this." He went over to the medical computer and took from the printer a freshly made brain scan. He hooked this new one onto the board next to the other three and what the Titans besides Cyborg saw shocked them.

The giant purple cloud that had taken up most of the back of Raven's brain was completely and utterly gone! There wasn't a trace of it anywhere. It looked like it had never been there in the first place.

"Hey!" Beast Boy exclaimed, "Where'd that big blob go?"

"Well, I'm guessing that the memories inside of it have been released somehow. Most likely some time last night at the power plant." Cyborg answered.

Robin was silent thus far in thought before shouted, "That guy!" The memories of that kiss between that man and an unconscious Raven flew in his mind as he said those words. "He must have done something to Raven to unleash the memories."

"That's what I was thinking. Problem is I can't tell if it was a bad thing or a good thing that the memories were freed. Suppressed memories are usually a bad thing to have, but with Raven you never know…" Cyborg trailed off as his mind wandered in worry of the possible outcomes of these happenings.

"Should we confront friend Raven about this?" Starfire asked confusedly.

"Yeah I think we should," Robin said, "This could be dangerous to not only Raven but to others as well."

"I'm with you man. We need to see what happened to Raven back there?" Cyborg inquired.

"Dude, I know! I had never seen Raven so scary before; even when she was angry at me." Beast boy said with a shudder.

"I believe friend Raven may need our help once again, yes?" Starfire asked.

"Real question is: Will she accept our help?" Robin queried as he slouched into a seat with a exasperated sigh.

Cyborg looked at his sadly and replied, "That, man, I don't know about either."

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It took Raven almost two hours to read the contents of Raven's little black book.

It was rather interesting and more informative than most diaries usually were. It almost seemed more like a biography/bingo book than someone putting his or her deepest, darkest secrets inside. The only difference was that Raven inserted her own feelings and opinions rather than stay neutral about the subject.

Robin was Raven's best friend and understood her more than anyone else on the team did. They shared a both metaphorical and literal bond that made them know the most about each other. From the reading, it seemed as if Robin had been Raven's first friend.

Cyborg was sort of a big brother to Raven, the way they spent time together working on his car, which he had dubbed as his "baby", just talking while doing the task, and how he is so protective of the small pale girl. He also thought of her as the little sister he never had so the feelings between the two were mutual.

Starfire was sort of an annoyingly innocent friend that Raven seldom hung out with or had anything in common with besides the fact that they were both girls and aliens somewhat. There were times when Starfire would try to get Raven to go to the mall with her, but it usually consisted of Starfire buying nothing but pink clothes and trying to convince Raven into wearing blouses and skirts with floral prints (all of it being in vain). Raven still liked her, but they just weren't very close compared to Robin and Cyborg.

The same went for Beast Boy, too. Raven seemed to think of Beast Boy as an annoying brat most of the time, but who could also sometimes be sweet and maybe (but rarely) thoughtful, in his own dorky sort of way. He could be really irritating, even if his heart was in the right place most of the time. He liked to do pranks on the other Titans, especially on Cyborg. He is constantly challenging Cyborg in videogames and despite their eating differences.

Raven had been a super heroine and was part of the superhero team, the Teen Titans. Robin was the leader and was their main strategist with some help from Raven.

She had been sort of the brainpower and the serious person of the group. Her maturity, intelligence, and her ability to stay calm in most situations is the reason why Robin had made her second in command if anything were to happen to him. Her emotions had to be strictly controlled in order for her powers to work or else it can cause a lot of trouble and destruction. Rachel couldn't help but nod her head in understanding. Rachel had had the same problem when she found about her powers over darkness that had been given to her by her father, Trigon. She had learned about them fifty years into her life and it took her another fifty years to fully understand how to use her emotions without destroying the Earth. It had been hell to learn but it was worth it to be able to smile and laugh again and be able to feel anger without killing someone. It was a wonderful feeling.

The book also held some stories that Raven had experienced while being a Titan. Such as when Starfire's and Raven's bodies were switched and they had to understand each other in order for them save the day. Or when Trigon had been brought to Earth and was going to destroy it, but the Titans were able to defeat him in the end. Rachel shuddered when she read this, somewhat glad that she had been Asleep and had not had to face him. It showed the informative contents of the all the enemies that they had fought in the past, what they could do, and what they have done.

Rachelle started to receive a headache. Absorbing three years of another girl's knowledge and memories in one's mind took a lot of brainpower. But she did have to know this so that Raven's friends won't think anything is amiss. She will be leaving them, no doubt about that, but that won't have to happen until _she_ makes another move and goes somewhere outside of Jump City. Who says she can't stay here for at least a few more months until that happens?

The throbbing in her head increased, causing her to groan and hold her head. She focused her healing powers on her head and the pain diminished slightly. Rachel put the diary back in the box after locking it, and slid the box back under the bed. There was still an aching that had to be fixed. She couldn't go outside yet to get something for it. Much too early and she was in too much pain too think of a good enough explanation for her behavior last night. She walked back to her medicine cabinet in the bathroom and found it mostly empty except for a few girl things. One thing it was unfortunately vacant of painkillers for her headache. Rachelle sighed heavily in annoyance, making a mental note to go to a store and buy some aspirin. She decided that she would just sleep it off. The pain hopefully should be gone by then. She walked over to the large bed and felt the sheeting, finding them remarkably soft. She stripped off her cloak and boots and slid under the covers, resting her head on the soft pillows. She smiled at the comfort and warmth she felt underneath the sheets.

Rachelle loved sleeping. She thought of it as a luxury that mostly everyone took for granted; to be able to dream of your wildest fantasies. This was always a comfort for her to have for more than a year since she usually was Asleep by then. And that kind of sleep was always dreamless. The only thing she did not like about sleeping: nightmares. Over her long life she has done a lot of scary and gruesome things and those adventures amplified ten-fold by a nightmare is not on her top ten of things to have.

Rachelle let her mind wander as her eyes drifted close and her breathing slowed. Within seconds she was asleep.

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The other Titans disbanded from the hospital wing to be left to their own devices; to do something to take their minds off of Raven until she left her room and they would have a long talk of what had happened. Robin was in the gym training as always beating a punching bag with more umph than necessary. Cyborg was in the garage, working on his car, though it seemed a little boring without his number one partner around to help him. Beast Boy was in the living room trying to play some videogames, but finding it hard to focus. And Starfire was in her room; studying teenage culture from a teen magazine, but was barely reading the words before her.

Robin kicked and punched at the punching bag until a well-placed punch created a hole in the bag. Robin removed his hand and watched as the sand leaked and spread across the floor, panting heavily and massaging his aching knuckles. He stared at the hole blankly. Plopping unceremoniously down onto the padded floor, he let out a frustrated sigh. He laid down, ignoring the feeling of the grain digging into his skin, and looked at the ceiling as his mind wandered towards what happened in the power plant

He'd have to give a report to the Chief of Police on what happened. They had left the scene before the police had arrived. In fact they had left before anyone had gotten there to get

Raven some help and Robin's back was still aching from that metal door so he wasn't in the mood to verbally give his report.

He just had no idea of what he was going to write for the Chief. He couldn't write that something strange had happened to Raven and she was the one that killed those things so brutally. The man already didn't truly trust Raven, the dark witch of the Titans, to _his_ city. Robin could already imagine what he would do if he found out that Raven had gone all bloodthirsty like that. No matter that it was to protect them.

The thing that worried Robin the most was that Raven had been keeping something _else _from him and the team; something else that had endangered their lives to dramatic degree. Gloom flowed through as he realized that all the talks that they had had together had done nothing to build more trust between the two. She still didn't trust him enough to tell him about something like this. Whatever _this_ was.

But it didn't matter. Robin is going to find out about this no matter what. He could never forgive himself if he were let something like this be left alone like the last time and then end up almost or succeeding in causing tons of destruction. He was not going to allow Raven to endanger herself ever again. This was a promise that he was determined to keep.

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End of Chapter

AN: Well finished with this. Third chapter will come soon. I had been working on that before I realized that this hadn't been put up yet. Whoops again.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Man I'm on a roll. Right after finally finishing SS and proofreading it by hand, I'm already moving on to ASSIB while I wait on a beta to fix mistake I may have missed. I really want this story to become really popular. I have high hopes for it. So on with the story. **Wow I wrote this months ago. I know I'm taking a while with these chapters, but I've made a new pact with myself one chapter a month. That mean writing it, proofreading it by hand, maybe giving it to a beta if they don't make it too complicated, and uploading it before**

Last chapter I was fixing it up for fun after I was finished with this and I realized that I missed over twenty 'Rachelle' when trying to fix them to 'Rachel'. Sorry about that but once again read the AN of chapter two understand I changed it to Rachel. This won't happen again as I have learned a new way on the computer to make sure I don't miss anymore name mishaps. You learn new stuff everyday! Sorry once again about that.

Also I'm tired of repeating myself. So I'm putting this is bold: **Saya does not exist in this story. She is being replaced by Raven (or rather Rachel). You'll find out more in later chapters so quit asking me question that will only give away the story if I answer them. Killjoys!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans the Cartoon Network series or Blood+ the Adult Swim series. Or at least I think it's still on AS. I haven't been watching in a very long while since it became too complicated to watch in the second and third series. Miss _one_ episode and you have no clue what's going on the next!

"Talk"

'Thought'

A Sword Soaked In BloodChapter 3

"Raven! Yo, Rae! Girl, are you in there?!"

Rachel sprung up from her bed at the sudden sound of her name being called. Someone was knocking on her door. She flung off her sheets and was about to answer door until she noticed something in her vanity mirror. Her eyes. They were still their brick red color. Those would surely be noticed by Raven's friends. Ignoring the knocking for a few more moments she placed her right hand over her eyes. She transferred her power to create a glamour over her eyes to make them appear lavender like Raven's. She quickly checked her body for any other difference. Seeing no problem, she put on her cloak and slipped on her boots. She walked briskly to the door while smoothing down her hair, unlocking it so it would slide open.

It was Cyborg. His balled fist was over her head as if poised to knock again, but stopped when the door opened. He instantly lowered his hand.

"Hi." Rachel said casually, inwardly wincing as she thought that maybe that was out of Raven's character, she never was the best actor.

"Uh… hi…?" Cyborg said apprehensively. "You okay? You've been in there for a long time."

"Oh yeah… I- I'm fine. I was just resting." Rachel began privately smash her head into a wall at her stammering.

"For five hours?"

"Yes. For five hours." And with that Rachel pushed past him to walk to the meeting room, Cyborg having no choice but to follow her.

They walked inside to see the other already in there. 'I guess they have assembled for a meeting.' She thought. This conclusion, however, did not stop her from moving over to the kitchen even if she did notice Cyborg join them. She calmly went to a cupboard to find a metal pot, finding it easily as if she had lived there all her life.

"Raven." She heard Robin speak behind her but she did not stall in her movements as she created her cup of herbal tea.

"Yes." She said coolly as she filled the pot with water and then put it on the stove. She turned it on.

"We need to talk." He stood up and began to walk over to join her in the kitchen.

"Maybe later." She said just as evenly as she set down a mug and bag of herbal tea.

"No. Now." Robin placed a hand on the counter in front of her to get her attention and to stop her from continuing what she was doing. Rachel paused, simply staring at the gloved hand before moving her eyes to Robin's face. Robin looked her dead in the eyes, meeting her defiant look with his own determined ones.

Finally, after a minute of a nonverbal conflict, Rachel decided to stand down. He was the leader after all and it would probably look suspicious if she stood up to him like this much longer.

"What about, Robin?"

"About what happened last night."

"What about it?" Rachel decided playing the amnesia ploy would be the best course of action at the moment.

"Raven!" Robin yelled in frustration.

"What Robin! I have no idea what you're talking about! I think if you're going to question me about something, then you should at least be a bit more specific about the information you want."

"Who were those people?" Cyborg asked to prevent of the confrontation that was about to escalate.

"Who were what people?" Rachel inquired not meeting anyone's eyes. It would be better if they knew nothing of Rikku or Haji.

"Who was that man? And that kid? Who were they?" He continued.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Rachel asked.

"Do you not remember what happened, friend Raven?" Starfire asked.

"No. What _did_ happen?"

"Dude! There were these monsters and there were chasing and you were like passed out or something! And this weird guy came in and did something to you and then you got all scary with these red eyes! And they were creepier that the usual red they used to turn to! And then you used this sword and sliced and diced those monsters to pieces!"

Rachel remembered that clearly, it had been sort of her way of letting out some steam after being Asleep for so long and those Chiropterans were the perfect outlets.

She feigned surprise, her brows rising slightly. "What?" she said in shock.

"You really don't remember, do you?" Robin mumbled, not expecting her to hear but Rachel shook her head anyway. She still refused to meet anyone's eyes, content with looking into her empty mug.

They were interrupted from their thoughts when an alarm went off. The lights started flashing red. Robin was about to leave Raven but then he suddenly turned around and looked Raven in the eye. "We're not done yet, Raven. We still need to talk." And without waiting for a reply he left her to go over to the master computer. He typed in a few keys to bring a map of Jump City. A flashing light popped up on the map in the downtown area.

"It's the New City Bank." Robin said.

"Again?" Beast Boy groaned in frustration. That bank was one of the most broken into bank in the city. It had to have been robbed like fifity times since they lived there, it was starting to get old.

"Yup." Robin answered. He pressed another key to bring up a security camera playing live footage. "It's the Hive again."

And there they were, Gizmo dragging out bag after bag of money as Mammoth carried large piles outside while Jinx watched near by.

She must have felt herself being watched because her eyes turned towards the camera. With a wicked grin she raised a hand at the camera and released her powers of bad luck, breaking the camera and the Titans' connection.

"Let's go Titans!"

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"Come on guys! Hurry it up! Put your backs into it!"

Mammoth groaned as he picked up another five hundred pounds in gold bars. "Ya know, we could do this faster if you helped."

"Yeah!" whined Gizmo.

Jinx laughed derisively as she said, "Pfth! And break a nail? Yeah right! Get back to work, idiots!"

"I don't even know why you bother doing all that work. It's pointless!" A voice rang through their arguing.

They turned towards the source and narrowed their eyes in irritation when they saw whom it was.

"You're just going to have to put it back!" There were the Titans standing in the rubble that the Hive had created.

"Ha! Make us, butt-sniffers!" Yelled Gizmo as Mammoth and him dropped their work to get ready for a fight.

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Rachel had no idea how she ended up fighting the overly large teenager known as the Mammoth. But here she was standing at the ready in front of this guy. She didn't really think that this would be a problem, but it just seemed a bit troublesome to deal with.

Mammoth chuckled as he looked down at this tiny girl. "Looks like the little Birdie is afraid of me."

Rachel had to suppress her desire to roll her eyes. "You wish." She raised her hand and encased a mailbox from behind him to knock it into his head. Mammoth staggered forward at the attack, but it did not do much to hurt him; only piss him off.

"Why you little-!" He slammed down a fist but Raven easily dodged the attack. Mammoth picked up a rather large piece of rubble, which Raven caught with her magic and turned it back at Mammoth. Mammoth was knocked back and growled in irritation.

He started another tactic of raging at her in a mad charge, running at her like a rabid bull. This time Rachel did roll her eyes and simply stepped out of the way. He ran into a wall that seemed to be rather weak as it collapsed under his ramming. The rubble covered him completely and he made not another sound, seeming to be knocked out.

'That was too easy.' Rachel allowed herself a sigh of annoyance before turning to the other battles seeing who may need her help. Robin and Cyborg seemed to be doing fine fighting Gizmo and Starfire and Beast Boy were doing quite well against Jinx.

All of sudden, she sensed danger coming her way and turned around to see Mammoth with a metal traffic pole, but before she could protect herself he was swinging it into her body like bat and she was the ball.

As the pole made contact she instantly felt white pain as several of her ribs broke inside of her. Blood flooded her mouth and leaked past her lips. She felt a nauseating lightness as she flew through the air and then she heard her skull crack as it hit a wall along with the rest of her body. She could practically the concussion forming in the back of her head. Her left shoulder dislocated she grabbed at it as more blood fell from her mouth staining, her white teeth.

She was nearly blinded by the pain. Her eyesight had turned red as she looked at the smiling Mammoth still holding that traffic pole. She instantly started have this intense want to cause as much bodily harm to this huge male. She heard someone yell Raven's name but in her anger she did not bother to acknowledge it

All of a sudden, her pain started to decrease she could feel her bone moving back into place and mended themselves, her skull seal its cracks and her concussion disappear. Her shoulder went back into place with a sickening pop that made Rachel wince. She gripped the wall as she slowly rose from her limp position. She spit out the blood that had been clogging her lungs. "Okay… now I'm angry." She stood totally erect as if she hadn't just been struck dead on with a metal pole.

Everyone who had seen it (meaning everyone who was on the battlefield) were now frozen in shock and disbelief. They couldn't believe that Raven was back on her feet like nothing happened when the proof of the event was on her bloodied and torn leotard and the blood that stained her lips and teeth.

Rachel knew that she should be keeping a low profile, especially after that little fiasco not even a day before, but right then she couldn't give a flying fuck about the consequences that could follow. At that moment, all she wanted to do was beat the shit out of this oversized behemoth that dared try to kill her.

She walked calmly towards him but everyone could see the living flames burning in her eyes. The Mammoth seemed oblivious to the pain that he was in for as he gave another swing down onto the dark witch's head.

Rachel, expecting it, braced for the impact and caught it with one hand before it reached her crown, effectively stopping its movement. Mammoth looked stunned at this sudden show of extreme strength and lost his grip. With both hands, Rachel snatched the makeshift weapon out of Mammoth's own.

She smirked evilly, "Let's see how you like it." She said as she brought it back for her own swing. She swung it but being the bulky man Mammoth was, the bar bent at a 90˚ angle as it hit his middle region but caused no damage to his person.

The other had then officially stopping fighting, too shocked to this side of Raven to continue. Instead, they pleased themselves to watch how this fight would end.

"Heh. Heh. Stupid Bird!" Mammoth smiled mockingly as Raven dropped the bar. "You really thought that some little piece of metal could hurt me?" He pounded his pecs to prove his point before snarling. "Looks like Birdy's got some muscle. But it's nothing compared to mine." Raven said nothing to this. She only stared at him with a blank as if she was looking at the imbecile of imbeciles.

"Got nothing to say?" Still Raven said nothing and this only served to piss him off even more.

"Why you...!" He growled. "Try to catch this!" He charged at her and then brought down his fists with the intention to crush the smaller girl but Rachel still showed no fear. She simply raised both her hand and caught his wrists.

She chuckled lightly before she muttered with a mocking smirk, "Nice try." Her smirk grew to a full grin when she saw Mammoth look completely stunned and in a daze at his predicament. She gripped his wrists tightly and then swung him easily over her body, smashing him into a wall and knocking him unconscious. Raven stared at the still Goliath before e she turned towards Gizmo, who was visibly shaking in fear. Being encountered with her frozen fiery stare he squeaked, and readily ran behind Cyborg who he had just been battling with.

"I'll go to jail now." He muttered in panic still shaking.

Jinx had been dazed like the others until at the spectacle but, at Gizmo's words, she shook herself out of her stupor. "What the hell, Gizmo? What's your problem! It's just Goth girl, for Christ's sake!"

She deserted her fight with Beast Boy and Starfire and instead ran for Raven, a fist raised to punch the dark girl in the face. Raven easily dodged what came her way, making Jinx stumbled as she only hit air. Her back was bare to Raven so she simply drove a well placed elbow into Jinx's back, knocking pink witch to the ground. The girl squirmed in pain but did not rise again.

Gizmo began to cry in panic and then screamed and begged to be taken to jail to be safe from Raven.

Robin shuddered from his stupor to take out his communicator to contact the police chief that it was safe to make the appropriate arrests.

Rachel had by then quelled her anger enough to realize what she had done. She spared a glance at the unconscious Mammoth and Jinx and then at the hysteric Gizmo and inwardly smacked herself for letting herself go like that. She was supposed to be undercover.

She was interrupted in her thoughts by Beast Boy's yelling. "Woah! Raven! That was so cool! It was like watching wrestling! Super-powered wrestling! How did you do that?"

"Yeah Raven." Robin followed up on Beast Boy's commentary. "_How_ did you do that?"

Raven said nothing. She felt a slight sense of dejavu as this was almost like in the kitchen.

"Raven?" Robin repeated.

This time Raven did react. She simply turned into a dark energy and melted away; most likely to her room.

"What did I tell you, man? Unlocked memories are a strange thing." Cyborg said as he stood beside his leader.

Robin thought for a moment before he began to walk towards his R-cycle and without another word donned his helmet, got on the motorcycle and drove off toward the tower for the obvious reason of talking to Raven.

Cyborg sighed before turning towards a flabbergasted Starfire and Beast Boy, "C'mon on… Let's go home."

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Unbeknownst to the Titans, on the top of a building nearby, there were two people, two men actually. They stood calmly, not speaking a word as they observed the battle that had just taken place. Or more specifically, one pale girl's fighting until she left. And that's when they spoke…

One of the men, a rather young man with pale blonde hair and green eyes chuckled to himself. He smiled as old memories were brought forth in his mind. "Heh. Same old Rachel."

The other, a man who looked be in his forties. Looked at his partner in thought before he said, "I disagree, Solomon. I don't think I've ever seen Rachel be so physical with an opponent."

"Oh come now, Amshel! That look! That beautiful look of hers that can strike fear into the heart of the strong as well the weak. It's the same as it had been all those years ago. I have to admit, I missed seeing her face. It's been too long."

"Yes it has. And look what time has done to her. That costume of hers… Rather ridiculous if you ask me. I would have thought she would pick something better."

"Well… maybe she had to fit into superhero protocol. After all, almost all superheroes look like idiots."

"Enough of this drabble. We've spent too much time here. We must go back now. " Amshel turned from the scene and began to walk into the opposite direction. Solomon watched him walk before he followed behind him.

"Should we tell her about this?" The blonde asked as they jumped into an alley from a fifty foot building as if it was the easiest thing to do.

"Yes we should." They walked coolly into the city surroundings and blended into the crowd of citizens.

"I just don't get why we should. She knows everything about Rachel already. What would make this any different?"

"Because she is our Mother, Solomon. And we must be eternally loyal and tell of everything we see that pertains to her enemy. Don't let your feelings for Rachel blind your judgment, younger brother." His voice turned to reprimand in an instant as he sneered at Solomon.

"How can I not, Amshel? She is after all to be our bride. I feel an almighty connection to her-"

"But we must ignore that connection and continue to be loyal to Mother. No matter what." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Do not worry, Solomon. We shall have our bride soon enough."

"I hope you're right, older brother." And with that they lapsed into silence as they continued for their destination.

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"Raven! Raven open up!" A yell could be heard down a familiar hallway. Anyone could tell who it belonged to: Robin. Open up: It held more than one meaning as he yelled through Raven's door.

Robin banged on the door again when he got no answer. "Raven! I know you're in there!"

The door suddenly opened making Robin stumble inside. To his surprise the curtains were raised, and he nearly overlooked Raven, who was staring out her window seemingly in thought.

"Raven?" he mumbled quietly, almost not expecting her to hear this call and it almost seemed like she hadn't as she didn't make a move in response. A few seconds went by before Raven finally turned towards Robin.

"Yes, Robin?" She said calmly as if she had done nothing wrong. And to tell the truth she hadn't really done anything bad. She had defeated and single-handedly locked three baddies in one afternoon. That kind of feat should be celebrated, but for some reason the way it was brought about just wasn't… Raven. That sort of brutish violence just wasn't her style hs usually ended things quickly and safely with her powers, which she had begun to do. It wasn't until that hit in the stomach with that pole… that everything about her changed. She never had played with her opponents like she had with Mammoth. The others might not have seen it that way, but having once fought in a city like Gotham, Robin could see it clearly. Those eyes that also held something else in those icy depths. That familiar sort of sick amusement in wanting to hurt someone. He had seen it more than once and was well versed its many forms. Raven's hadn't been exactly evil, but it hadn't been very good either. It was sort of hard to explain, however, the gaze had given him chills nonetheless.

He shook off his shivers. "What was _that_, Raven?"

"What was what, Robin?"

"RAVEN!" Robin yelled in aggravation. She was blatantly skirting over an issue that was becoming steadily more and more dangerous. Did she think him stupid to not ask what was going on in that head of hers after last night's incident and now this? This was becoming ridiculous! "Oh no! Not this time, Raven! You are not avoiding this!"

Raven glanced towards him before looking back at the sun that was slowly starting to descend.

Robin huffed at the deliberate disregard of his authority. Raven's never been this rebellious when he had to play "follow the leader". She usually followed his orders without complaint (or at least with only one or two sarcastic quips attached). This change was really starting to worry him.

He sighed in tried frustration. He walked over to the vanity in the room and took the chair that sat before it… which was weirdly designed with only three legs. He placed it a few meters behind the dark witch and sat, simply staring at Raven's frozen back before speaking again. He spoke calmly as he asked, "What's wrong, Raven? What's going on?"

Once again Raven chose not to speak. Her eyes never left the window, but somehow Robin knew that she was following his every move.

"Raven… you know you can trust me, right?" Still no answer. "Raven… we have a connection, you know that. Ever since that time with Slade, you remember? I can feel something's wrong with you. Something's different, Rae. What is it?"

More silence followed. "Does it have to do with that man… or that boy… or those creatures? What were those things, Rae? Cyborg tried to do a search on them but there was no such thing on the databanks. Who were those people-?"

"I already told you I don't know them." Rachel finally spoke and it was a denial of all things.

"Do you know what those creatures were?"

"No. But I plan on doing research on them. They could be supernatural for all I know. I've never seen them before." Lie after lie began to fall from her lips and easy as flowing water and once she started she couldn't stop. She felt guilty about deliberately leading her leader astray but there was nothing she could do. 'This is for his and rest of the group's safety. The less they know the better.'

"What's happening to you, Raven? What was that back there? I never… you've never fought that way before. I mean when I saw you get beamed by that pole, I was really worried about you and then you just… you got up like it was nothing, but it had be something! People don't just get up after being knocked into a brick wall! And then you pull off moves that were completely unlike you! You scared me, Rae? What is going on-?"

"I don't know, Robin!" Rachel finally yelled in frustration from the interrogation. This conversation was starting to ware of her nerves and she wanted it to end _now_. She turned her head to give him an irritated glare.

To Robin's surprise, for once nothing exploded or flew through the air when she yelled and showed emotion. 'She must have stronger control over her powers.' He thought idly.

Her voice brought him back to the subject at hand. She had visibly calmed as she turned her back to him, but she still held annoyance in her tone. "I don't know what happening to me. It's all so sudden as if a new strength has come forth. I know it's not natural, you don't have to remind me." She sighed as turned to look at him again. This time she showed tiredness on her face, a look that almost seemed foreign on her usually unaffected features. It somehow made Robin feel instantly guilty about what he was doing to her. She was his teammate. His second-in-command. His confidante. His best friend. And he was just interrogating her like she was just another criminal with dangerous information. He couldn't find it in him to look her in the eyes at that moment so he looked at the floor.

Once again, her voice brought him back to reality. "I'll do some research on it. It could be connected to those creatures. Maybe when it scratched me or something, I don't know." What was she saying? Connected? They couldn't be anymore connected to what was going on with her. 'The less they know, Rachel… the less they know.'

There was silence as Robin tried to find the right words to reply with. He leaned back in the chair, forgetting it's weird design and fell back hard on the (fortunately) carpeted floor. He groaned as he back hit the floor. He looked up with dazed eyes to see Raven looking at her with concern.

"I'm okay." He groaned as he slowly rose from the floor, rubbing his back and picking up the chair and replacing at the vanity. He saw Raven roll her eyes before she smirked at him. Robin was happy that he was able to unintentionally ease some of the tension in the room, even if it was at his expense.

"Way to go, Boy Blunder. Really smooth." Raven voices was slathered in sarcasm and hidden laughter at his folly. Rachel couldn't think of where the nickname came from, it simply seemed natural as it came from her mouth.

"Yeah. Thanks." Robin quipped in return. He looked back the chair. "Why do you have such a stupidly made chair, anyway? It's only got three legs, for god's sake!"

"It's made to test one's balance, Boy Blunder. A test that you have failed pitifully." Her smirk grew to a full real smile.

"Yeah whatever." He gave his backside one more stroke before giving Raven a nervous smile. "Hey… you wanna get some dinner? Cyborg's probably cooked something by now."

Raven seemed to give it some thought before she replied; "Sure." and walked to her door, opening the door. "Coming?" She asked as Robin made no move to walk.

"Uh yeah. Just give me a sec." He smiled reassuringly to show he was okay. Raven gave a small smile herself before starting down the hallway.

Robin gave the dark witch's room a cursory scan. Just seeing if it was any different from the last time he was in here. He knew something was different he just couldn't put his hand on it. He looked over at the large scenic window that gave a large and beautiful view of the city across the cape; and that's when he realized it. The curtains were pulled back on the window. Raven never pulled back the curtains; at least not during the daytime. All the time he had been in here the curtains were all put down leaving the room in eternal darkness. Now the light of the sun was flooding the room making it seem less creepy and more like a teenager's bedroom. The walls for once didn't look black but the deep purple that he remembered helping Raven paint it with. Most of the things in the room that had always looked black to him were actually different shades of shadowy purple. It forced Robin to keep in mind that despite the way she acted sometimes, Raven was still a teenaged girl and appreciated color just as much as anyone else.

"Hey, Boy Blunder." Robin jumped at the sudden voice and turned to see that Raven had returned and was leaning on the frame of the door looking at him skeptically. She gave him a look that clearly said, 'What are you still doing in here?' She smirked and said, "Get out of my room." Rachel said it so naturally as if she had said it her whole life.

Robin couldn't help but chuckle. Now that's more like the Raven he knew. He walked out the door and Raven moved out of the way. She closed it as he exited and they walked to the main room together.

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AN: Hopefully you've read my top AN so I won't have to repeat myself. Somehow the files that I had emailed myself at the end of school disappeared. So until I can get to school computer I won't be able to give another chapter of SS until like maybe late August and by that time, I'll be to deep into another chapter of this since I already have the next chapter of this started. I cut some stuff from this chap off to put in the next chapter so it wouldn't be too long and wouldn't end crappily. The stuff that was there would take too long explains and would be worth another chapter to write. Thanks for staying loyal through my procrastination. I hope my system works.

Also people might be a bit confused by this chapter or the fic in general, but don't worry. More will be explained in later chapters.

And thanks to those who have reviewed with such good feedback and encouragement. It really boosts my self-esteem as a writer. Thanks again and keeping reading and reviewing. Buh-bye. ^_^


	4. Chapter 5

AN: Hello again after so long. I'm really sorry, I've left you all so high and dry for so long. The worst part is: I don't really have an excuse so I won't make one. But I have good news, I'm going back very soon to writing more chapters for these stories. Believe it or not, I did have a basic skeleton for the plots of each of my stories, I just never got around to finishing them due to other responsibilities, and then became MORE of a videogame fiend and so did that whenever I had any free time (along with reading tons of fanfiction myself) so just didn't back into. I was also a little discouraged when a chapter that I had written 8 pages on was gone forever and couldn't work up the motivation to finish… But anyway! I hope to have a new chapter up for at least half of them before the summer is up, and during college… well let's see what happens. Having major in communication with a TRIPLE MINOR in English, art history, and theatre can make a girl PRETTY busy, but I'll see what I can do. Hopefully, you guys aren't TOO pissed with me and you can personally thank Beloved Daughter who wrote me a bit of good constructive criticism that caught me in a good move and motivated me FINALLY to restart up this hobby.

Anyway, besides this misleading AN, I also wanted to post something up for everyone to get involved in tomorrow. Here it is. Viva la resistance!

There is a scheme brewing up with the FF staff and they're planning to take down any and every story over the M rated section (stories with yaoi, yuri, het lemons, song based stories, extreme violence, etc) ...

So on June 23rd, there will be an official Black Out. Authors will not log in, read, or review stories. Those who do not have accounts are also affected by FF's decisions too. Please participate and spread the news! If enough authors take part in this event, FF will know we mean business. Also, if anybody has any information on when this purging on M-rated fics will be please contact me. I would like to know in advance.

SPREAD THE WORD!

copy and paste this into your story updates, communities and forums

thanks


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